AICDAfrican Initiative for Combating Desertification to Strengthen Resilience toClimate Change in the Sahel and the Horn of Africa

[VOICE FROM THE FIELD] [MAURITANIA] Stabilization of Sand Dunes and Biological Fixation in Mauritania

The fight against desertification is a necessity for the protection of socio-economic infrastructures in Mauritania: a country whose area is a three-quarters desert. The phenomenon of silting, which is very acute in the country, is now a threat for:

Urbanization and villages

Oases

Agricultural and pastoral areas

Communication routes (tracks, rivers, paved roads).

The best-known practices in the fight against desertification in Mauritania carried out by our initiative, “Nouakchott Association Deserves a Tree”, are as follows:

1. Mechanical stabilization of dunes

Simple techniques that are cheaply and easily reproducible by the population, were applied using branches of vegetation such as:

2. Biological fixation (fixation of plants and plantations)

The selection of fast-growing species suited to the climate and soil conditions of our ecosystem will be a priority.
The following species are generally used for this activity. The focus is on local species, among which we may cite: